The Medium Is the Message or Is it?

Who knew that this many years later the infamous quote from Marshall McLuhan would still be ringing true today but with a bit of a twist.  “The medium is the message” was coined back in the 1970’s and back then McLuhan was trying to emphasize that the way we say something is more important than the words we use to say it, interesting and profound for that time.  Today, with the onslaught of the internet and more importantly the use of social media this profound notion has evolved even further, the medium itself has become the message. 

No longer do we turn to traditional avenues of information searching like newspapers, tv or radio; no we go to the internet now to get our news.  Recognizing how their readers and viewers are now consuming information, media outlets themselves have turned to social media to gather and present their news.  Those of us too busy to read an entire newspaper will turn to twitter and scan the posts and possible links from major media outlets to get our fill of the days happenings locally and globally.  In fact, when major news is breaking in the world it is usually twitter that will break it first.  This was the most evident during the Syrian uprising and citizen journalists were tweeting and posting videos of the rioting and mayhem when the country had put a ban on all media coming in and or going out.  So what does all this mean?

This means that the need to be immediate far outweighs the need to be accurate when presenting the hard news.  This means the ability to connect via the internet has replaced many individuals want for face to face interaction.  This means the avenues in which companies and individuals market themselves will be determined how their target audiences consume information.  This means the medium itself has become the message. 

Social media is an amazing tool and should be used as just that a tool of many to communicate and interact with individuals of any and all target audiences.  But we as consumers must also do our due diligence and understand that information presenting and consuming has forever been altered and how we chose to digest this information must change along with it.  This will continuously evolve as technology and the means in which we communicate continues to evolve.  Where will this end up?  I don’t have those answers but I do know I need to update my facebook status to contemplative.